Peace at Last
by Sesshy'sGirlLOL01
Summary: A small sequel to 'A Monk and the Swordmaster' but you don't need to read it. Set some time after FE6. Karel and Lucius are reunited.


A/N: If you like you can consider this a small continuation of "The monk and the swordmaster" but it just came to me and has been sitting on my computer for a very long time, so I thought that I'd just finish it and post it. This is set after FE6.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem.

Warning: This contains a homosexual relationship, if you don't like don't read.

Peace at last

Karel found himself smiling as he walked out of his small cottage in Bern, for some reason he couldn't smell blood anymore… the scent had all but vanished. He walked over to a small patch of flowers that had begun to grow outside his little home- he still had trouble believing that he of all people had not only found a place that bought him a remote form of peace but it also had flowers growing in it.

Letting out a sigh he walked towards the grassy fields that surrounded his house he suppressed a small chuckle as he looked at the dirt and bloodstains on the green grass. They had been caused by one of the many boys who had come begging him to train them- he had refused and the boy had continued to pester him, so, he taught the kid a lesson. He smiled as he remembered the boy practically crying before storming off, not before promising that he would be back.

He smiled as he thought of the treatment he had given the boy, though his smile wasn't exactly a happy one- in a way he didn't like treating the children that hounded him the way he did, but he didn't really have much of a choice- he didn't want to deal with any 'pupils'… but in a way, he supposed that he didn't want to get attached to anyone… the last person that he had grown attached to had died…

He looked up at the blue sky and took a breath… something clenched in his heart as he looked up at that sky, the blue, it reminded him so much of the eyes of the monk… the monk with golden hair.

"Lucius…" he breathed. Clenching his fists, there are many who could testify that Karel had calmed considerably since the days when he fought with Eliwood, Lynn and Hector.. but non of their opinions mattered to him, the one person he wanted to see the being he had become was dead. He had died in an orphanage…

It had been years since Karel had had any urges to go on a bloodlust, but the thought of Lucius's death and that he had not been able to do a thing about it (heck he hadn't even heard a thing about it until at least a month after the event) made him want to go into a blood rage until he died and was able to join the monk.

"Master Karel?" Karel had been to locked in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed the footsteps of his niece stepping behind him.

"Yes Fir?" he replied not looking back at the daughter of Karla and Barte. He didn't understand why, but the young girl had taken it upon herself to visit him at least once a week.

The girl smiled at him. "I wanted to see how you were." Her smile broadened and she took a step closer to him. "Well how are you?"

He remained silent for a few moments. "I am well…" he replied coolly.

Fir nodded and stepped beside him- it was actually quite amazing how much like her father she was, even though she looked like her mother, she behaved like him- considering Karla wouldn't have the impudence to just walk up to him and talk like they were equals or whatever… not that he minded her 'impudence', in his own opinion she was actually a sweet child…

"I was in town today." She said almost innocently. "There was someone asking for you." her lips twitched before curling into a wryly smile.

Karel bit back the urge to sigh. It was probably some boy wanting him to train them- he briefly wondered if Fir had told them where he was. He hoped that she had not, he really did not have the desire to beat back another hero worshiper.

"He was a monk." Fir continued.

Something in Karel's heart stopped at those words. A monk? What would a monk want with him? He had not done anything to offend the clergy, at least nothing too pressing that he could think of off the top of his head. He looked back to his niece with a raised brow. "A monk?"

She nodded. "I half thought him to be a woman at first…"

Karel's eyes widened. A clenching took his stomach, before it turned into a churn of uneasiness. His lips turned down into a frown as images of Lucius took his mind's eye. He knew that it was silly to even consider such an option, for he knew that it was impossible, but his soul begged for it. For him.

"He said that he had heard stories of the Swordmaster Karel living here and if so, he wanted to meet with him." She crossed her arms, her smile seemed to increase.

"Did you say anything to him?" Karel asked calmly, trying to hide a certain tone from his voice- he couldn't even name what was in his voice, whatever it was, however, it seemed to have an effect on Fir.

She was silent for a few moments. Her eyes boring into him as she tried to ascertain what he was thinking. "I told him nothing, I know how much you like your peace- and in a way I felt sorry for the man, he wouldn't really have lasted all too long against you in a fight.." for some reason as she said this, a small look of guilt took her, almost as though it suddenly occurred to her that she had a small thought that she had done something she shouldn't have. Karel wondered if his face had betrayed him, it was entirely possible.

Karel looked away from his niece. He closed his eyes and exhaled. "I see." Was all that he said before he turned and looked down at the flowers. "It was nice to see you again…" He did not look upon her again, or give her any indication that he wanted to continue to converse with her.

Fir eyed her uncles back for a long time. She watched as his hair swayed with the light breeze, his long locks moving in sync with the flowers at his feet. "Goodbye Karel." With that said she turned and walked away. It was obvious that there was nothing more to say between the two of them.

Karel wanted to turn to her, he wanted to say something. He wanted to tell her to send the monk to him, or to even tell him where the monk was; but his words failed him. His heart may have been holding him back as well, it had leapt at the news of a monk, but he had long since given up hope that Lucius would be alive. His hope may have still been there had he not seen the charred remains of the orphanage himself.

"Lucius…" he breathed softly, his hand moving to rest on his swords hilt.

Fir, who was still within hearing range, froze and Karel almost thought that she had heard him, were it not for the fact that she kept walking instead of saying something to him, he would have believed she had. He let out a sigh at the relief he felt when it was apparent that she had not heard him. 

XXX

'Come rest now… with me…' Karel was not one for long comfortable sleeps, it was a fact that had never bothered him in his youth, but now, as he aged it was taking its toll on him, especially since he had tasted the pleasures of a peaceful rest. He knew what it felt like to sleep in a state of complete relaxation, complete calm, complete peace. It was a feeling that he had not experienced since, strangely enough, the war. Those nights spent with Lucius had been a wonderful. He had felt so relaxed, so wonderful, he knew, however that he would never get that back. He would never experience that kind of peace again. The thought only made him wish for the embrace of that final slumber, so that he might return to the one who bought him such peace.

Karel looked to the ceiling of his little shack and frowned, he could see light peering through little holes, which meant that he was going to have to get up there and fix it. He sighed and pulled himself from his comforter. His home was small and contained only things he would need. Supplies, a cot and some other small essentials were all that he needed. He had never been one for large and fancy things, and his small home proved it.

He proceeded to follow his morning routine which consisted of preparing a small meal of eggs, getting dressed, eating the eggs and cleaning up from his eggs. It was a simple routine, one that suited his needs perfectly.

When he had finished with his morning routine, Karel collected some nails and wood from behind his home and proceeded to climb onto the roof. While an easy task, it was getting harder as he aged. He knew that, in the near future, he was probably going to have to invest in the aid of one of the younger villagers- a fact that he loathed to think about.

"Are you in need of assistance?" a somewhat raspy, but slightly familiar voice asked.

Karel did not look up from his work as he hammered into a nail. It was probably just one of the villagers anyway. "No." he grunted and hit the nail. "Thank you."

"If that is your desire, then I shall respect it, however, may I stay and watch you? Tasks such as these can be quite dangerous, and I would never forgive myself should you come to harm when I could aid you." There was a light, almost teasing, tone in the voice that Karel wanted to sneer at. Instead he continued on with his work.

"You may watch," Karel reached for another nail. "It is your time that you choose to waste." He continued to hammer, while ignoring the person looking up at him from the ground. He had caught sight of white robes through the corner of his eye. Assuming this to be the priest who had been looking for him, he chose to ignore the man, in hopes that he left.

"Time is not wasted if the goal is worthy." Karel resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Typical priest, prattling on with sermon notes when church was not in session. He wondered briefly if he could club the man with the hammer and manage to make it look like an accident.

Karel reached for his hammer, only to have the worthless thing slide down his roof and land nicely on the grass below. He swore under his breath and made to climb down to retrieve it. Only the clearing of a throat stopped him. "I will aid you." The priest said. Karel stopped and waited for the other man. He listened to the sound of the other climbing the ladder to the roof. His nose twitched as a familiar scent touched his nose. His eyes widened. His head turned. Dark eyes met with ocean blue.

"I was wondering when you would look at me." A raspier version of Lucius' voice laughed.

Karel sat back on his haunches and watched as the man climbed onto the roof and came to sit across from him. He looked older, that much was a given. His face, while now aged, still held the feminine softness from his youth. His hair was shorter, whiter than it had been, but still completely soft and full. But the thing Karel could not tear his gaze from where his eyes. The eyes he remembered had not changed. So blue, so full of emotion. Those eyes that were a window to the monks' soul, and the still shone brightly for him.

"You were dead." His voice sounded colder than he had intended.

Lucius shook his head. "I escaped the orphanage- I took the children to safety."

"There were bodies-" whatever Karel was going to say was cut off as he took in the pain that flickered through the monks' eyes. "Who did the blood belong to?" he asked simply.

Lucius sighed and moved to sit beside Karel, the distance between the two became glaringly obvious through the gap between them. "Lord Raymond and Rebecca.." his eyes became glossy. "They sacrificed themselves to allow me time to get the children out." He tore his gaze from Karel and looked out to the flowers surrounding Karel's home.

Karel was quiet for a long time, his mind still coming to terms with who was sitting before him. He eventually spoke. "I am sorry for their loss." He truly was sorry, it was not the fate that he would have chosen for the pair. "Where have you been?"

Lucius looked back at the sword master. "After escaping the fire, I took the children to the closest refuge that I knew. Lady Tia and Legault were most kind and took us all in. My voice never recovered from the flames, but I am lucky."

Karel was half tempted to demand where the old tactician Lady Tia was, she could have helped with a lot of the problems they had encountered. Roy could have especially used the support. He decided, however, that it was not important, and could wait. What was important, was the person sitting before him. The person he had missed, the person he had mourned. He reached out and cupped the chin of the monk, he felt the other tremble at the touch. He gazed into the others eyes and, without words, told the other everything that he needed. Everything that needed to be said. He knew that Lucius understood. He always did.

Lucius smiled at the other. His own hand moving to cover the one on his cheek. "I too have missed you." He breathed.

Karel bent down and their lips touched. A spark lit up his body and he poured all of his feelings into the kiss. All of the pain and loneliness, all of the…love. Lucius returned the kiss with a story of his own. Of pains that Karel knew all too well. Karel pulled back and guided Lucius to lie with him on the roof of his home. When the monks head was nestled under his chin, he inhaled the familiar scent. Home, it seemed to say. Home.

"Come rest now…" Karel began, and he felt Lucius smile in response. "Rest now, with me…"

A/N: short and sweet, I hope that you liked it!


End file.
